Russia uses merchant navy fleet for intelligence operations in North Sea, study reveals
June 24, 2024 6 Comments
HUNDREDS OF RUSSIAN MERCHANT ships have been utilized by the Kremlin for over a decade to carry out intelligence operations in the North Sea, a major new investigation has revealed. Belgian newspaper De Tijd and the investigative journalism website Follow the Money (FTM) carried out the joint investigation, using data provided by Global Fishing Watch, a Google-based international nonprofit organization that gathers information on commercial fishing activities worldwide.
Encompassing 220,000 square miles, the North Sea lies between France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Norway, Denmark, and Germany. It hosts many of the world’s major shipping lanes, an extensive network of energy pipelines, as well as key undersea communication cables. The development of large-scale offshore energy production has further-augmented the significance of the North Sea for the security of Europe in recent years. The strategic value of the North Sea has become even clearer since the onset of the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2014.
According to the De Tijd/FTM study, the Russian government has been highly active in the North Sea through a variety of stealthy means –primarily by deploying civilian vessels to collect intelligence and possibly even carry out sabotage operations. The study focused on 1,012 Russian-flagged non-military vessels that have been active in the North Sea since 2014. These consist of oil tankers, scientific research vessels, fishing boats, cargo ships, and even privately owned yachts.
The study identified 60,000 loitering events involving these Russian vessels. In the shipping domain, the term ‘loitering event’ refers to vessels that deviate from their normal route, reduce speed for no obvious reason, drift aimlessly, or circle around a location that may initially appear arbitrary. Loitering and other such peculiar behavior by merchant ships makes no economic sense, as it requires more fuel and results in added compensation for crews. Notably, close to 1,000 loitering events by nearly 170 different Russian ships were found to have taken place within less than a mile from an underground cable or energy pipeline.
Experts who contributed to the FTM/De Tijd study said that these loitering events likely point to intelligence collection activities aimed at mapping critical infrastructure across the North Sea. In some cases, Russian ships slow down in order to secretly release underwater surveillance or attack drones, or submarines. In other cases, the ships themselves may be used to sever underwater cables by various means, including deliberately dragging their anchors across the seabed.
The affected countries have been slow to react. It was only this year that most of the nations that share access to the North Sea, namely Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Norway, Denmark, and Germany, formalized an intelligence-sharing agreement through the North Sea Security Pact. However, aside from intelligence-sharing there are few signs of a comprehensive defense effort against the Russian operations. The latter take place in international waters, where all ships enjoy the right of free passage. In its current form, international law does not permit any defensive action against these activities, other than surveillance, the study concludes.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 24 June 2024 | Permalink
intelNews.org 
I can’t help but think that the PRC does this too.
Truth to tell Russian intelligence gathering ships, under commercial cover, have been active in Western European waters since the beginning of the first Cold War (from the late 1940s). More specifically large Soviet/Russian “trawlers” known as Auxiliary, General Intelligence (AGI) ships have been used for all sorts of duties. [1]
Major Russian targets have been UK and US nuclear missile submarines (SSBNs) that operated/operate out of Faslane naval base in western Scotland. Just offshore loitering Russian “trawlers” attempt to get a fix on departing SSBNs and ideally “cue” Russian attack submarines (SSNs) to tail these SSBNs.
Such Russian “trawlers” have legitimate reasons to loiter (moving very slowly and/or stopping and actually catching a few fish) some of the time. Also these “trawlers” have the right cranes and other gear to “sever underwater [telecommunications] cables” as the article suggests.
The flipside can be embarrassing. Other major naval powers, the PRC and western, could also use similar naval ships under commercial cover for intelligence gathering purposes. They might also sabotage opponent’s undersea telecommunications cables and energy pipelines.
The US has long opposed [2] the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines that carry cheap Russian gas from Russian territory to Germany. US opposition increased after Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. On September 26, 2022, Nord Streams 1 and 2 were efficiently sabotaged, ie. “cut”.
As continental Western European countries benefitted from the cheap Russian gas they can be ruled out as saboteurs. This might leave the navies of the UK, US and of Ukraine itself as prime suspects in running the sabotage operations under commercial ship cover [3]. Particularly the first 2 countries have long experience of operating undersea minesweeping “drones” that could have done the pipeline cutting. No countries are completely moral in the intelligence game.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spy_ship#Soviet_AGI_trawlers
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nord_Stream_2#Controversies
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nord_Stream_2#2022_sabotage
I have news for you, in the Cold War the Russians used their merchant fleet for spying on The West.
Nothing new about gathering data, in1968 we closed RAF Stornoway when the Russian trawlers came in the bay, the base closed in 1968, nothing secrete anymore
A very interesting article. Russian intelligence gathering ships, under merchant/commercial cover, have been active in Western European waters far longer, since the beginning of the first Cold War from the late 1940s. More specifically large Soviet/Russian “trawlers” known as Auxiliary, General Intelligence (AGI) ships have been used for all sorts of duties. [1]
Major Russian targets have been UK and US nuclear missile submarines (SSBNs) that operated/operate out of Faslane/Clyde naval base in western Scotland [2]. Just offshore loitering Russian “trawlers” attempt to get a fix on departing SSBNs and attempt to “cue” Russian attack submarines (SSNs) to tail these SSBNs.
Such Russian “trawlers” have excuses to loiter (moving very slowly and/or stopping and might actually catch a few fish) some of the time. Also these “trawlers” have the right cranes and other gear to “sever underwater [telecommunications] cables” as the article suggests.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spy_ship#Soviet_AGI_trawlers
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMNB_Clyde#Based_vessels_and_units
Those old enough to remember the cold war know that this was very common in the former USSR. Soviet trawlers covered in antennas were everywhere US Navy ships were operating.